


Fandom is a city

by Ruuger



Category: Babylon 5, Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Multi-Fandom, The Mentalist, The X-Files
Genre: Meta, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:42:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23247208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: This is something that I've been thinking about for years now, and I finally managed to write it down: namely, some meta about how in my mind I see fandoms not just as communities of people, but as literal cities.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23
Collections: Buffyverse Top 5, March Meta Matters Challenge





	Fandom is a city

I first started thinking of fanfoms as cities about 15 years ago when I first entered the X-Files fandom. I finished the show about a year after the finale had aired, and was excited to find some fannish content. But when I trawled through the websites and forums and such, I remember thinking that it was like walking around in a post-apocalyptic city that had been evacuated in a rush. There were virtual seasons that had been started and then abandoned. Archives and mailing lists that had been thriving just a few months earlier, and now suddenly weren't. The infrastructure for a huge megafandom was still there, untouched, but all the people were gone. The only place of activity was Haven, but that was only for MSR shippers, so I didn't even try to go there. I had a brief but pleasant stay in the Doggett/Reyes and Robert Patrick parts of the fandom, which still had some life, until they too became abandoned.

I had a similar feeling when I joined the Buffy fandom a few years later. Buffyverse was still quite a lively place in 2005, with new communities being created and more fic than a newbie could read in one sitting. But there were signs that it had been once been something much bigger. It was a very much a divided city, with different shippers and fans of various characters mostly keeping away from each other. You never asked why, but you hears whispers of terrible ship wars and warnings of places that had been so badly poisoned that no-one who entered came back. I spent some of my happiest years in the Spike parts of the town, on the edge of Spuffy district, and still think of it fondly even though these days I usually only visit the Buffy-Is-My-Woobie street.

I have no idea what kind of a city Doctor Who fandom is, because I'm sitting here at the top of the Peter Capaldi Tower, looking down and thinking "Yeah, _not going there._ "

Ancient and oft-rebooted megafandoms like Sherlock Holmes or Star Trek are not just a single city but rather vast, sprawling city states that are sometimes divided by lovely little brooks and sometimes by barbed wire and landmines. They have the old, established (but also a bit rundown) villages like ACD and TOS, and the more hip and trendy areas like Sherlock and Disco. Most people have a home in one area, although they might commute to other parts of the city, and some people never stray away from their own block, hardly even aware of the huge city around them.

The cities can also appear out of nowhere. One day there's nothing but a huge empty plot of land and the next day there's Inception or Teen Wolf or Night Vale. Sometimes they last, and become proper cities, but often they lack proper foundations and disappear just as quickly as they appeared, leaving behind just a few tents and the steeple of a church tower peeking from the ground.

And of course, not all fandoms are cities. The Mentalist was not a city, although by all right it should have been. It had all the makings of a city, and the foundations had already been laid out, but it just never happened. So being in The Mentalist fandom was like walking down a quiet road on a foggy day, looking for a city that you refuse to believe does not exist.

Sometimes another person emerges from the fog and asks: "Do you know where The Mentalist fandom is?"

"No idea," you say, "I thought it would be here, but I haven't found it."

So you walk together for a while and talk about how awesome Cho is and maybe argue a bit about whether or not "Blue Birds" was the best episode ever or the worst episode ever. Until one day you turn to say something to them and they're gone, distracted by the bright lights of MCU or NCIS. And you're left alone in the mist again.

Babylon 5 is also not a city. It is a desert, with ancient ruins that suggest that once, very long time ago, it was the home of something magnificent. But it's not a scary place, so you find yourself a nice shelter beneath some crumbled wall and light a fire.

Suddenly you realise that there's someone standing next to you.

"Don't mind me," they say, "I just wanted to ask if you've watched _that_ bit yet."

"No, I just started," you reply.

"Oh, okay then. Do you mind if I just stand here? And watch?"

One by one, more people arrive, until your campfire is surrounded. "Just wait until you reach the end of this season" someone will say, or "I knew you'd like that character", but mostly they just stand there. Silent. Watching you.

Finally you finish the show. Some people sit down, and start asking you questions and giving you fic recs, while others leave, having just stopped by to watch you on their way to some city.

"What now?" you ask the others as you watch the dying embers of your fire.

"Look," someone says, and points towards the horizon.

There's a faint flash of light, like a campfire being lit. Without a word, everyone stands up and heads towards it.

You follow them, hoping to find a new B5 newbie to watch.


End file.
